The Music Industry Has Cancer.

I just read this article from the Huffington Post

It was pretty interesting and I agreed with a lot of what John Mellencamp said about Wall Street ruining the music industry (Shit, what hasn't it ruined?), but I disagree when he thinks that it's the death of the music business... I think he said that, his conclusion wasn't clear.

One of his points was that the reason so many record companies are struggling right now, is because they failed to embrace the internet. Not only do I think they failed to embrace it, but they are still fighting it, the RIAA is still trying to stop people from "illegally" downloading music, rather than trying to figure out how to get people to actually buy it. The music industry is run by a bunch of fucking idiots, they are the dumbest, greediest, bunch of bastards out there. If Apple didn't come up with the iTunes store, and spend so much time trying to get these record companies to sell their music on the store, all of these companies would be dead. Doesn't it shock you that a computer company was the saving grace to the retarded music industry?

If these companies could have got their shit together before Napster gave everyone a taste of free music, things would be much different now. But it's too late, and not only that, but the music these record companies are pushing is just not worth the money it costs to buy the album. The thing is, I buy music from bands that I like, but only if they are on their own, or an independent label like Fat Wreck Chords. There is no way I will buy an album from a major label because the artists don't get shit for it, so I just don't get the album at all.

The whole stealing thing is a stupid argument. When you download an album that you weren't going to ever buy to begin with, that's not stealing, because #1. there is no money lost when you download a bunch of 1's and 0's, no actual product is stolen, and #2. Fuck Metallica.

Unlike Mr. Mellencamp, my rant has a conclusion. Look, the music industry is going to die, and unless they can change their evil ways, there is nothing that can be done to save them. You can stop all the illegal downloading, but they will still die because nobody will actually buy the albums that they would have illegally downloaded because they are shit.

Bands don't need a Major label anymore, there is no benefit from it, only loss of control and huge debts. CD Baby, iTunes, MySpace, FaceBook, PureVolume and other internet companies have made it possible for bands to be successful on their own. The advancement of recording technology lessens the need for a record label even further. It no longer costs millions of dollars to have a studio. Almost every town has someone with some basic recording equipment. With all this available, a band can record a full album for around $1,000 - $10,000, then they can send the CD to be sold on CDBaby.com, CD Baby will then distribute it to every online digital distributor out there (including iTunes), then you can create a following on MySpace, FaceBook, and PureVolume. Then you can tell all of your fans that you recorded a CD, they can then go buy it on iTunes for $9.99, and of that $9.99 you get $6.50, then CD Baby takes 9% of that leaving the artist with a total of $5.85 per album sold. I think Metallica got $2.00 per album sold.

Because of the internet, and these tools, the music will thrive again, and the industry will die, it's only a matter of time...